Apple is reportedly planning to debut a near-indestructible iPhone this fall that may cost $100 more due to its pricey sapphire display screen.
Not to be confused with the precious stone, sapphire is a clear ceramic material that will make a phone screen much stronger and more resistant to scratches and breaks, USA TODAY reported. Also used by the military, sapphire comes from a process where pure oxide powder is melted into a ceramic.
"It's not like you can drive a car over it," Matthew Hall, an associate professor of glass science at Alfred University, told USA TODAY. "But it will do better than traditional glass."
Apple is said to have collected the largest supply of the ceramic in the world during the last several years.
Because it's so expensive to produce, using sapphire for the iPhone's screen will increase its price by $100, Tim Bajarin, an independent analyst with Creative Strategies, told USA TODAY.
While sapphire is scratch-resistant, whether or not the material will shield phones from breaking remains to be seen. The ceramic's toughness depends on its thickness and cut, the Wall Street Journal reported. Due to its density, sapphire will result in a heavier iPhone compared with a traditional glass screen.
Apple has reportedly invested an impressive $700 million into producing smartphones with sapphire screens.
"Before the Apple investment, I would have said sapphire is a great material with great potential but it's a few years out from becoming a market reality," said Vinita Jakhanwal, director of mobile and emerging display technologies at research firm IHS Technology, as quoted by the Journal. "But Apple has invested a significant amount, so it would be fair to say that the company probably expects a return on its investment pretty quickly."
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